BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China Shipping (Group) Company, one of China's two leading marine transporters, is in talks with the largest port of Malaysia to purchase shares of existing docks and participate in the expansion of the port.

    The company has just moved its center of transshipments in southeast Asia to Malaysia's Pelaboham Kelang Port, which lies in the world's busiest commercial shipping route of Malacca, according to Shanghai Securities.

    Pelaboham Kelang mainly consists of two parts -- the northern port and the west port. With a coastline of 2,600 meters, the port handles 6 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent unit) annually.

    China Shipping's target partner is the western port, the newspaper quotes an insider of the company as saying. The company also moved the head office of its holding company in southeast Asia from Singapore to Malaysia.

    Container transport of Chinese marine shipping companies in Pelaboham Kelang increases steadily as a result of soaring Sino-Malaysian trade, which reached 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2005.

    As Pelaboham Kelang's largest client, China Shipping handled 500,000 TEUs last year, five times of the amount in 2000. The figure is expected to reach 600,000 by the end of 2006, the newspaper says. Enditem